Thursday, 10 March 2016

Media Quotes of the Week: From the lost generation of middle-aged journalists to Prince William's bid to control press coverage

Dale Maharidge in The Nation on the large number of journalists in their 40s and above who have lost their jobs on newspapers: "There are still print newspapers—and news websites—producing heroic local journalism. But it’s clear that the loss of a combined several hundred thousand years of experience from newsrooms across the country is hurting American democracy. Less known is the impact on this lost generation of talent, people at the peak of their skills—in their 40s and beyond, ill equipped to navigate the changed landscape "

Russ Kendall, a lifelong photojournalist and editor who is now self-employed as a pizza maker, quoted by Dale Maharidge: “You know who loves this new day of the lack of journalism? Politicians. Businessmen. Nobody's watching them anymore."

R.G. Ratcliffe, also quoted in The Nation article:﻿“Perhaps I’ve missed it, but has anyone done a story on how the newsroom layoffs of the past decade have been one of the greatest exercises in age discrimination in U.S. history?”

A Buckingham Palace spokesman: "I can confirm that we have this morning written to the chairman of the Independent Press Standards Organisation, to register a complaint about the front page story in today's Sun newspaper."

Sun editor Tony Gallagher on the BBC Radio 4's Today: “Two sources came to us with information about the Queen and her views on the EU and we would have been derelict in our duty if we didn’t put them in the paper. The fact that the story is inconvenient for a good number of people is not my fault. We serve our readers, not the elite who might be upset at what we’ve written. We are completely confident that the Queen’s views were expressed exactly as we’ve outlined in both the headline and the story.”

Nigel Dudley on his deceivingus blog on Maria Sharapova's press conference on her positive drug test: "So, what do we have here? We have the image of a woman taking responsibility for what happened, apologising to her sport and her fans and accepting that there is a price to pay – and there is no doubt that these provided the best media sound-bites. But there is a clear subtext; that she is human and made mistake due to a whole series of mitigating circumstances and therefore should receive another chance. In other words, she has done nothing really culpable. In summary it is a very clever mix of the rhetoric of contrite guilt and the hard-nosed substance of innocence...But don’t be fooled by the images and words Sharapova had used. They are but the first blows in a long campaign to preserve the commercial viability of brand Sharapova."

Peter Barron announcing he is stepping down as editor of the The Northern Echo after 17 years: “It is with a heavy heart that I have decided to step down as editor but The Northern Echo is in robust health both in print and online and I feel the time is right to hand over to someone with fresh ideas and the energy to take the title into a new era in its illustrious history."

Today Zaman editor-in-chief Sevgi Akarçeşme after Turkish police fired tear gas and used water cannon on a crowd to forcibly enter the country's top-selling newspaper after a court ordered its confiscation: “Today, we are experiencing a shameful day for media freedom in Turkey. Our media institutions are being seized. As of today, the Constitution has been suspended.”

John Hawkins in a letter to the Sunday Times [£] on the retirement of Hugh McIlvanney:"As a copytaker at The Observer, I took Hugh’s telephone reports and columns and transferred them to the typewriter. I learnt to wonder at his command of English and attention to detail. He agonised over his copy and his delivery was punctuated by long pauses, sometimes so long the copytaker had to ask if anybody was there. When The Observer was taken over by Lonrho, accountants descended with the intention of cutting costs. When one asked why Hugh received so generous a salary, he was told: ‘Because he is the best sports writer in Fleet Street’. ‘But I’ve read his columns and don’t understand them,’ said the accountant. ‘That’s a good enough reason to get rid of you!’ was the retort."

Andrew Marr ‏@AndrewMarr9 on Twitter: "To those saying I interrupted BJ too much... It felt like being a fly heckling a steamroller, or twig trying to intervene with a waterfall."

Piers Morgan on MailOnlineabout Prince William allowing only a PA photographer to cover his family's 'secret' skiing holiday: "This photographer – whose bosses should hang their heads in shame at allowing him to become a glorified Palace PR flunkey - then submitted his images to the royal couple, who pruned them down to six very carefully selected photos which they were happy for the world to see, but only after they were back in the UK. This followed a series of moves by William and his wife to seize back control of their family’s image from the media, replacing photo-calls with pictures they often take themselves as we saw with Kate’s photos of George attending school and Princess Charlotte after she was born. So what’s the problem, I hear you cry? Well, it’s this: Prince William hates the press and this is a very deliberate and unacceptable attempt to shackle and control them."

About Me

I am a freelance journalist based in the UK and was deputy editor of Press Gazette, the journalists' magazine, from 1993 until 2006. I want to give an independent view on media matters.
You can contact me with stories, ideas and comments by email at jon.slattery369@btinternet.com You can also follow me on Twitter @jonslattery